The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c15.s2.t5.43

v2.c15.s2.t5.43

Pratāparudra seems to have sent an expedition against the kingdom of Kampili some time after the departure of Khusrau Khān from Telingāna. The circumstances in which he invaded Kampili are not definitely known. According to the tradition preserved in the Kumāra-Rāmana-Sāngatya and other late Kannaḍa literary works, Kumāra Rāma, the son of Kampilirāya, paid a visit to the court of Pratāparudra at Warangal to solicit that ruler’s help against Ballāḷa III, with whom he was in conflict at the time. Though Pratāparudra honoured him and treated him with consideration, he declined to join him in the war against Ballāḷa III. Kumāra Rāma returned to his country in great anger and offered an affront to Pratāparudra by assuming some of the Kākatīya titles. Pratāparudra, provoked by this act, declared war and sent his army to invade the kingdom of Kampili. He was, however, defeated in battle by Kumāra Rāma and had to make peace with him and retire into his own territories.² This account is, however, contradicted by the evidence of Telugu literary works of the later centuries. Prōlaya Annaya, one of Pratāparudra’s commanders, destroyed, according to Śrīnātha’s Bhīmēśvara-Purāṇam, the pleasure gardens on the outskirts of Kummaṭha, the capital of Kampilirāya.³ Koṭikaṇṭi Rāghava, an elder brother of Sōmadēvarāja, one of the forebears of the later Āreviḍu chiefs, is stated to have defeated Kampilirāya in battle and deprived him of the ‘seven members of his royalty’.¹ Taking into consideration all the evidence furnished by both the Kannaḍa and the Telugu sources it is not unreasonable to conclude that victory leaned at one time to the side of Kampilirāya and at another to the side of Pratāparudra, though it is not possible to conclude, in the present state of knowledge, what the ultimate issue of the war actually was.